The Ritual
by idiosyncraticbug
Summary: How hard can performing a ritual be? Not very if you know what to do and happens to be SPR's resident onmyouji. So why is Lin so very reluctant to perform this particular ritual? Answer to Azamiko's challenge.


Disclaimer: Ghost Hunt does not belong to me. The same goes for the goat (which belongs to Azamiko by the way). No animals were hurt (much) in the process of writing this fic.

A/N: This is written in response to the challenge posed by Azamiko who wants a story which includes at least three of the following: a sacrificial goat; an OC; a poem/spell (which must rhyme but doesn't have to be mine); honey, cheese, or milk; and the line "Uh, I don't think that goes there. No, really. And why is it pink?". Read on to figure out which three I've included. ::wink::

_Italics denote thoughts._

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oOo

Dark eyes met the pair of equally dark eyes in front of him. Briefly he wondered why they seemed so sad. But no sooner had that thought surfaced; he felt the need to bang his head on the nearest wall, or rather, tree trunk, seeing as how the nearest wall isn't very near. _Ah! This is stupid! Oh course she's sad! In a situation like this who wouldn't be? _

He turned his head away, choosing instead to focus on his task. However, she took a step to her right and was once again in his line of sight. Lin let out a sigh. To put it simply, she was distracting him, or more specifically, her eyes were distracting him. The huge dark brown eyes were looking at him with misery written all over them and it … disturbed him, to say the least. _I wish she would stop looking at me like that, _he thought miserably.

Lin suppressed a groan. He may be stoic and all that but he simply couldn't bear to have females looking at him with eyes like that. There should be a rule somewhere saying that to have eyes like these are illegal. It made him want to envelope her in his arms and comfort her, which was even more disturbing in itself. _Still, what needs to be done must be done_, he thought to himself as he turned his head away again. He should ask, no, demand a pay rise after this.

Silently, he shook his head bemoaning his fate; much to the amusement of his dark-eyed companion as he recounted the events that had happened earlier.

-- Flashback --

"Lin, Madoka needs our help."

Upon hearing those words, Lin shuddered involuntarily. The words 'Madoka', 'needs' and 'help' should never ever be in the same sentence. It sounded so … foreboding. The last time Madoka asked for help had turned out to be something that till today, continued to give him the shivers whenever he thought about it.

Lin let out a long sigh.

"Where?"

"The Sakura village. We'll leave in an hour."

The older man could only nod.

That afternoon saw the regular trio of SPR at the quaint little village by the name of Sakura which is located about 3 hours from downtown Shibuya. Madoka, fortunately or unfortunately, was nowhere to be seen upon their arrival.

"Ne, Naru, isn't Madoka-san supposed to be here?" Mai asked, seeing no sign of the woman.

He didn't bother with a reply.

Mai, having long since been accustomed to it, let it slide and settled instead for looking around the compound they were standing in.

A door slid open to reveal an old man coming out. He had a rather serene expression on his face, as if he just had a very satisfying meal. Mai figured that the old man must be at least eighty years of age with his hunched posture, brown, wrinkly skin and thin frame.

"Ojii-san …" she called out. The man did not answer her and continued walking away in the opposite direction.

She caught up with him and tried again, this time in a louder voice, thinking that perhaps he was hard of hearing.

"OJII-SAN …"

He whirled around and exclaimed loudly, "Gah! Stop shouting in my ear! I'm not deaf! How many times do I have to tell you that? Youngsters these days! They never listen to their elders. You have to repeat it a million times just to get it into their thick skulls!"

Mai's dark brown eyes widened. She was shocked to say the least. Who knew that such a frail looking old man could have such a loud voice?

"I-I'm sorry, ojii-san. I just wanted to ask if you know of a lady by the name of Madoka around here."

"Eh? Speak up girl, I can't hear you," he said amiably with hardly any trace of his previous anger on his face.

"OJII-SAN, IS MADOKA HERE?"

He cocked his head to the side and furrowed his brow. But before he could give an answer, both Naru walked up to join them.

Suddenly, he hollered while pointing a gnarled finger at Naru, "Oi! You! What are you doing here? Lazing about are you? Go and clean the chicken coops! Youngsters these days! They are always lazing around!"

The dark-haired teenager was taken aback for a moment but quickly regained his composure. If it weren't an old man they were dealing with, Naru would have let slip a rather scathing remark by now.

"I'm Shibuya Kazuya from S –"

"No! There's no ass here! You think this is a zoo, boy?"

The same thought ran through both Mai and Naru's mind at that moment as they stared at the old man. _What?_

Lin, who had been talking on his mobile phone up and watching everything silently up until then, walked up to them.

"Naru, Madoka just called. She's somewhere in Kyoto right now. She said we're to perform a ritual thanking the local earth deity on behalf of this old man here."

Suffice to say, Naru wasn't very happy with the news. His immediate reaction was to fish out his own phone from within the depths of his coat pocket with every intention of giving Madoka a piece of his mind. He is a psychic researcher, not some priest who goes about performing rituals!

Five minutes and a whole bunch of 'no's' followed by one single 'whatever' later, Naru ended the conversation with his teacher.

"We're performing the ritual," he stated. Lin simply nodded. He was prepared to swear that there had been something akin to defeat in the deep blue eyes belonging to Naru a second ago.

Mai looked at both the men, bewilderment written clearly on her fair face. _Perform a what?_

However, before she could begin asking questions of Naru, the old man's voice interrupted them once again.

"Oi! You!" he said, pointing at Lin, "Didn't I tell you to go clean the chicken coops? How many times do you want me to repeat myself? Youngsters these days! They just never listen!"

Mai had to choke back the giggles that threatened to burst forth from her lips at the look that passed the tall Chinese man's face. It was very obvious that no one had ever suggested something like that to him. Naru, seeing the predicament his assistant was in, stepped in to intervene.

"We're here to help perform the ritual," he said calmly.

A look of confusion passed across the old man's wrinkled face before finally turning into understanding a minute later.

"Oh, yes, yes, the ritual," the man nodded absently. "What ritual?"

Lin and Mai exchanged puzzled glances. Were they at the wrong place? Or was the old man simply much older than he looks? The way he rambled on and on certainly suggested so.

"The ritual to thank the local earth deity," Naru answered.

"Eh? You were supposed to have done that yesterday, boy! Youngsters these days! They have no sense of time! You tell them to do it yesterday but they only turn up today! What is the world coming to?" he exclaimed, his frail hands waving about as he spoke.

"We were only told about it this morning," informed Naru. His voice had taken on a colder edge, a clear sign that his patience was wearing thin.

"Show some respect towards your elders, boy! Youngsters these days! They just don't know what the word respect means!"

That did it. The look on Naru's face when the old man scolded him had Mai officially bursting into a fit of giggles, an action which successfully earned herself a death glare from her employer. Pulling herself together, she turned to face the elderly man once again.

"I'm sorry, ojii-san. You see, the lady named Madoka only told us about it this morning and we came as soon as we could," she said in the sweetest, most polite tone she possessed.

"Why, that is so kind of you, girl," he replied, giving her a toothy smile. "Old men like me just don't have the energy to do things like that nowadays. Come now, we mustn't dawdle. The deity will not wait for us."

Mai followed the man obediently but not before sending a smug smile in Naru's direction. _Impoliteness gets you nowhere, you arrogant brat! _Her boss could only glower at her retreating back before trudging along with Lin.

-- End Flashback --

And that was exactly how he had gotten into this awkward situation – the ritual to thank the earth deity. It wasn't fair that he was the only one who ended up doing this when both Mai and Naru were idling somewhere. No, cross that out. They were probably busy having a good laugh at his expense. The thought of his usually emotionless employer laughing did nothing to help his already sour mood.

He really should place a curse upon Madoka. It was all her fault anyway. Her fault that he was stuck here in this remote village, her fault that he had to perform this ritual for that old geezer and not to mention that it was her fault that he had to wear what he considered as the most ridiculous looking outfit ever made by man. Lin could still remember the way Mai had burst into a fit of giggles and Naru had tried his best to hide his snickering earlier on.

-- Flashback --

The sight that greeted him when he slid the door open was this: a brown-haired, slightly pink-faced girl giggling madly and clutching her stomach with her right hand while her left hand was holding on to a dark-haired young man's shoulder for support. He didn't need to look twice to see that the said young man was trying to hide his own mirth behind his usual mask of indifference and failing; those deep blue eyes were a dead giveaway.

"It is not funny," Lin's voice growled out, causing Mai to giggle even harder and a hint of a grin to appear on Naru's face. Lin scowled at them. He didn't need them to remind him that the robe the old man made him don is downright absurd.

First of all, the wide robe was obviously meant for a much shorter person as it only reached his knees instead of his ankles. This meant that he must keep his trousers on, something that looked very odd when coupled with a priest's ceremonial robe. Secondly, the whole thing was of a color he never ever wore and it didn't help that both the back as well as the front of the robe was embroidered with a big, red sakura flower. Lin glared at both Mai and Naru.

Then, suddenly remembering the object in his hands, he shook it in front of the two teenagers' face.

"What am I supposed to do with this?"

Two pairs of eyes blinked simultaneously as they took in the piece of cloth.

"Could it be that you're supposed to wear it around your waist, like an obi?" questioned Mai.

Lin, bless him, looked very uncomfortable. Although whether or not the discomfort was due to the idea of wearing an obi no one knew.

"Uh, I don't think that goes there," began Naru. Mai opened her mouth to disagree but was promptly cut off by her employer.

"No, really. And why is it pink?" he asked, tapping his chin with his index finger, a sure sign that he was thinking.

That got Mai thinking as well. She may not be a fashion consultant or anything but something told her that to put something pink there was just so very wrong. It didn't fit into the entire color scheme of Lin's robe which was in varying shades of yellow with the majority being saffron in color with the exception of the red sakuras.

"Maybe we should just ignore it," suggested Lin. _No way would he be seen wearing something pink!_

Before either Naru or Mai could answer, the shoji panel slid open to reveal the old man whose name they now know as Tanaka Shiro.

"Has anyone seen – Hey you! What do you think you're doing with my Kaoru's blanket?"

"You mean this?" asked Lin, holding up cotton cloth in his hand.

"Are you deaf boy? Youngsters these days! They never listen to anything their elders say! Why, in my time, you would be beaten for such ignorance before you could -"

"Who's Kaoru?" Mai wondered out loud. _Tanaka-san's grandchild perhaps?_

"Kaoru is my pet cat. Have you met her, child? She truly is a wonderful cat! Did you know that –"

He was cut off by Mai. Who knows how long can the elderly man talk once you set him going? And from the looks of it, his cat is bound to be one very long topic.

"Ah! Look at the time! I'm sorry Tanaka-san, but we have to perform the ritual now. Perhaps we'll talk after this," she said, ushering the other two men out.

-- End Flashback --

Lin let out another sigh. Whether he liked it or not, he had to get this done. He really felt sorry for the young nanny goat tethered to the tree in front of him.

"It'll be over soon, I promise," he said gently. The goat looked at him with mournful brown eyes. The Chinese man couldn't bear looking at her.

_Let's get this over and done with! _Lin gave a quick glance to the paper on the ground. Thankfully the prayer was only seven short lines and not seven pages long. The downside to it was he had to repeat those lines seven times. There is no doubt that by the end of the day, every single word will be etched permanently in his mind.

The surrounding was quiet except for the sound of the breeze rustling through the branches and his voice softly reciting the prayer of thanks. When he was done repeating the prayer seven times, he stood up and gave a deep bow to the tree. Apparently the old, gnarled tree is where the earth deity resides.

Another breeze, this time slightly stronger, touched his face. Lin knelt down and picked up a bowl containing some cream colored liquid. According to old man Tanaka, it was fresh milk from Saya, one of his best goats. To Lin however, they're all the same; milk that is, not the goats.

_Here comes the hard part,_ thought Lin. Gingerly he picked up a small knife and held it up. Dark brown eyes looked at him curiously as she attempted to nip his shoulder.

"It'll be over soon and you'll be fine. It won't hurt much, I promise," said Lin softly.

Dark red blood oozed out from the slit that he just made. He watched as a crimson rivulet made its way slowly into the bowl of milk he held just beneath the slit. Very soon, the creamy liquid turned pink with swirls of red in it. Deciding that he has taken enough of the young goat's blood, Lin put the bowl down and fumbled around for anything that can stop the bleeding.

"Lin-san, I'll take care of the goat, you finish up," said Mai.

With a nod of thanks, he stood up, the bowl in his hand once again. Lin bowed towards the tree before walking around it, all the while pouring the mixture of goat's milk and goat's blood onto the ground. After completing the circle around the tree and emptying the bowl at the same time, he gave another deep bow before walking away, a sign that he had completed the ritual.

oOo

Two pairs of eyes watched from around the corner as a tall figure made its way towards the barn. Silently, they followed until the figure entered the barn. Knowing that they could not go any further without being discovered, they opted for watching him through the open door.

He walked purposefully, shoes tapping softly on the ground. It didn't take long for him to find her, for she was just nearby. She was curled up at the corner, looking small and fragile. As he approached her, she raised her snowy head and looked directly into his eyes. Those eyes …

Slowly he lifted his hand and petted her head, not wanting to scare her. His eyes flickered over to the bandage on her leg and he felt guilt wash over him.

Softly, he said, "I'm sorry if I caused you pain but … I – I'm sorry."

She looked at him and nuzzled his hand. He knew then that he had been forgiven. A smile appeared on his face.

Outside, Mai wanted to squeal in delight but before she could even open her mouth, a hand was clamped over her mouth.

"No squealing. He'll hear you," Naru stated, ignoring her muffled protests. How that guy knew she was about to do just that was beyond her.

Her protests died down and Naru, satisfied that she wouldn't give them away with her squealing, removed his hand lest she take it into her mind to bite him.

"Wow, I never knew that Lin-san could be so gentle," Mai whispered.

"Well, he's always had a soft spot for animals especially the females," answered Naru.

oOo

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A/N: There you have it, my erm ... weird little fic. Leave me a review if it made you smile. Your review will make me smile. ::grins:: 


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